A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information exchanging method, an information management system, an information managing apparatus, an information communicating apparatus, a computer readable recording medium for recording thereon an information managing/communicating program, a computer readable recording medium for recording thereon an information managing program, and also a computer readable recording medium for recording an information communicating program, by which information related to users on a network is communicated on the network, so that mutual relationships among the users on the network are emphasized to thereby support/promote activities of the users.
B. Description of the Related Art
In the present invention and in the discussion of the related art, the following terminology should be understood. For instance, the term "user" includes not only individuals, but groups of people, organizations, etc. Further, the term user also generically refers to a person, group or organization that accesses information or has other activities on a network such as a local area network (LAN) or the Internet.
Information related to a user (referred to as "user information" hereinafter) includes user attributes that include both static information and dynamic information. User information may also include information related to communication conditions that the user utilizes, such as the route user information must follow during transmission from a point of access of the terminal used by the user to access the data or information from a server. The above mentioned static information includes, for instance, a personal name, a firm name, a home address, a business address, regular access location, a contact address, and a hobby. The dynamic information includes, for example, a current connection condition, and present conditions of a user, e.g., a current location (which may differ from the regular access location).
Also, the term "user terminal" is an "information terminal" such as a computer or computer terminal that utilizes user information to connect the user terminal to a server via a network for the user's use. A user terminal can be, for instance, a personal computer, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a workstation (WS), a portable telephone, and so on.
Recently, Internet techniques have advanced considerably and, correspondingly, the number of Internet users has increased dramatically. Further, information communicating/utilizing possibilities by way of such techniques for storing/opening and transmitting various kinds of information on the World Wide Web (WWW) are accelerating. The information to be communicated involves personal information and information related to services and service providers. Thus, various user services such as information retrieval services and introduction related services based activities upon the above-described information are currently available.
There are proposed systems whereby personal information may be exchanged between persons over a network or the Internet. That is, an assembly of personal information, for example, a group to which a person belongs, and a contact address, is communicated via a network, such as the Internet, in a form of an electronic calling card to various other users. The conventional technique of exchanging calling cards in the real world is being brought to the network world.
The calling card exchange technique may serve as an aid whereby various users can become acquainted with other users even though these users are remote from one another.
One such calling card service established by the Applicant is known as "e-MEISHI" (electronic business card or calling card service) at the WWW site Teleparc (http://www.teleparc.com/) on the Internet. This electronic calling card service "e-MEISHI" is such a service that a user can register his or her personal calling card with a server to have the personal calling card exhibited and, interesting calling card from another user may be exchanged. Thereby, various users can collect calling cards of other users in order to further communications and social networking.
Some of the problems to be solved by the present invention are as discussed below.
In the communication modes relating to the conventional calling cards, the data such as personal information described in the calling cards are merely distributed via the network to the users. As a result, the personal information provided to the users constitutes static information which is not changed after the personal information is registered, and may become outdated over a lapse of time.
The actual information of the calling cards collected by utilizing the above-described "e-MEISHI" of the Teleparc site exists in the server. When the content of the information relating to a calling card is updated, this updated card content is reflected on the calling card in the server. However, this updated card content is not reflected in the calling card that was previously downloaded by another client or user. In other words, the data in the calling card that has been downloaded via a browser to the respective user terminals corresponds to the information that existed on the server at the time of the downloading, namely the static information.
As described above, in the conventional electronic calling card systems, the contents described in the electronic calling cards are not changed after these electronic calling cards are received, and the calling card information becomes outdated over a lapse in time. The user information normally changes over a period of time. Users, groups, etc. often may then update their calling card information by contacting the server. The updated information is then updated in the database of the server accordingly. However, those users who previously downloaded calling card information now have outdated information. Only users who download information after updating have up-to-date information in their possession. Further, if dynamic information such as the present location information (where the user is not at his or her usual location) and the present activity conditions are reflected in the electronic calling cards, then the calling cards only reflect such information at the time of downloading and rapidly become obsolete.
Another problem with electronic calling cards is that some users do not want all information about themselves to be available to anyone who accesses the server database. For example, some users may not want a sales organization to receive relatively private information, such as home telephone numbers or home addresses. Some users may only want specific parties such as close personal friends or business acquaintances to have access to certain information on their calling cards. In the current electronic calling card system, all information in the calling card is available to any party accessing the electronic calling card database.